Flint, Mich. Water contamination draws multiple suits

Associated Press

DETROIT

One lawsuit seeks to replace lead-leaching water lines at no cost to customers. Another seeks money for thousands of Flint residents who unwittingly drank toxic water. A third complaint has been filed on behalf of people with Legionnaires’ disease.

While government officials scramble to rid Flint’s tap water of lead, victims are suing Gov. Rick Snyder, the former mayor, rank-and-file public employees and almost anyone else who may have had a role in supplying the troubled city with corrosive river water for 18 months. The lawsuits accuse them of violating civil rights, wrecking property values and enriching themselves by selling a contaminated product.

“How can they look at themselves in the mirror?” asked New York attorney Hunter Shkolnik, who filed the latest lawsuit Monday on behalf of 2-year-old Sophia Waid. “It’s an embarrassment for government officials to take the safety of their citizens so lightly.”

Sophia’s father, Luke Waid, said he feared losing custody of his daughter when blood tests revealed that she had elevated levels of lead. Those tests were done long before Flint’s tap water was identified as the culprit in 2015.

Lead affects the central nervous system, especially in children 6 and younger, and can cause learning problems and hyperactivity.

His lawsuit, which seeks an unspecified financial award, is one of at least seven complaints involving Flint in state and federal courts. It’s the first by Shkolnik and Detroit co-counsel Brian McKeen, but the lawyers plan more. Separately, 1,700 households have contacted Michael Pitt’s Detroit-area firm about joining the class-action case he filed in November.